Review: The Jago & Litefoot Revival (Act 2)

In my review of Act 1 I detail why you should listen to this story without spoilers (every point there relates to both parts). To talk about act 2, I’m going to have to talk a few details. So if you haven’t listened yet, listen to both parts before reading on and yes you do want to listen to both parts, trust me!

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Right, now that disclaimer is said… THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR IS IN THIS TOO!!! OMG, 2 DOCTORS AND JAGO AND LIGHTFOOT!!! Right, I feel better now. What a cliff-hanger from act 1.

The second part of this story takes up the action right where we left off and dials it up to Eleven… I mentioned he’s in this right?We really hear the revival part of the story kick up a gear here as well. They painted the picture so well of Jago & Lightfoot having lost the magic without the Doctor around in part 1, now we hear the magic return to their lives. The writing of each Doctor conjures them up perfectly and I love the performances of Trevor Baxter and Christopher Benjamin as they give their versions of the Tenth & Eleventh Doctors.

Jonathan Barnes writes them so much to play with here and these two lap it up. The idea of having the stories of their exploits having powers, whereas maybe not completely a new one within sci fi, is none the less enjoyable and done just right. Just as a sample of the rich dialog, who but Jago could deliver the line ‘(I) had to scarper like a Dutchman on Michaelmas eve’ or litefoot talking about how he had a wild youth ‘Oh Henry, there are several stories I could tell you… at least 3!’

With both acts taking a little over an hour put together it’s amazing what is packed in. They set the point in the 10th Doctor’s time line from which he has travelled in this story; that being on his epic regenerational tour of his past companions. There is a crowd pleasing cameo from Lisa Bowerman, who also gets simply the best out of our gentlemen narrators in her role as director as well. I really wished this was longer on one hand as I was having so much fun listening to this story, but firstly it is so tight as a story and pacey that I would hate to lose any of that. Secondly, with the next series of Jago and Litefoot on its way soon, I can understand there may be a factor of time everyone involved has to commit to both and the space in Big Finish’s tightly packed release schedule.

As it stands this is the perfect testament to what Big Finish has built out of Jago & Litefoot. Yes the relationship between them was there 40 years ago on TV; but it’s not always easy to recapture something like that, or to find the core of what worked in that story and recreate it, so many years on to boot. Not only have they done that in spades, but in my book they have surpass it and found more gold in the mine than we had previously seen.

In Jagoees, I give this a devilishly, dazzlingly, distinguished 10 out of 10.